Years of Poems and Spirits

Started this blog about five years ago. Now it is slowing down so much I wonder whether it is worthwhile to keep it.

Haven’t read much at all for almost a year now. Life changed since I started at MF: turning from contemplative to active in a very short span.

The startup experience was fun. The downside of it was that some people, myself included, coming in thinking they have a larger role to play. It is true and good but could play out silly at times. And because it is a new business with a lot risk, some times it attracts people with substandard qualities, such as AT who is plainly not cut out for his position.

Yet I never felt so confident about my own ability after a year of intense work, and seeing my predictions come to pass and being proven right repeatedly. In some ways, it is as if MF was my lab.

So now I have decided to go solo, it is a really strange feeling. Call it leap of faith but for a while, it seems like I have lost all points of reference. There is no resume any more. There is no “whatever department” where you can throw a task to. But right now, I am still enjoying the roller coaster. The ugly triumph is still far away.

There are still some New Yorker articles worth noting. That is the only life line nowadays. The last several years of “exotic” reading is almost a memory. Now back to the highschool sweetheart.

HK: human congee, the bookstore guy, meeting GQ, BD story, evening on the beach, football and dinner

GD: place names, Jin (泾), Cao (漕), Bang (浜) in Wu, Cantonese dialect (氹 Dang4)

Macau: Da San Ba Pai Fang, the island name, bastardization

SH: road signs, Pete, expat life, bars, the Expo, “I shit in a hole”

Milton Friedman money mischief, examples of inflation and politics, questions about fiscal policy and high-power money, fed regulating m supply vs int. rate

HZ: resort during a major holiday. Rained in in Tao Guang Si. Restoration of the temples, lack of stories. Staying in a hotel, worried about being spied on

SH: family tension, failed 15 year project, global financial center building, open hostility toward Japanese, dusty view of shanghai

Hai Yan – peasant’s apartment

Hai Ning/Yan Guan/Xia Shi – pi pa, Qing history, fight against flooding, hero worship, hai wang temple, wang guowei old house, his view of acquiring knowledge

Xu Zhimo: a pampered life

Qian Tang wave: spectacular

misc: how difficult it is to plan anything in China today. road sign, map, asking for direction on the road

Google research

Where I started this blog

Two weeks passed and I still remember everything I meant to say behind those hints. Do I still need to write anything down after all? Somethings are worth writing down. For others? Maybe those short handed keywords suffice.

I need to write down this line before I lost it -

“A culture is an Existential Choice. An Existential Choice is one such that it is its consequence. And that consequence is what people call Truth. ”

Here I said it.